Spyder, Spyder
by CityofDaydreams
Summary: Bella's got a surprise. Mayhem ensures. A glimpse into the lives of the Black cousins. oneshot


_A/N: I wrote this quite along time ago but I thought it was worth posting away. A little look into the Black cousins lives._

_Disclaimer – None of the characters in this piece are mine._

_-----_

Spyder, Spyder

She'd found him in the bathroom, lurking darkly behind one of the four clawed feet of the bathtub. He wasn't the biggest, nor the most colourful – she'd found far bigger and better on her occasional trips with Father to the cellar – but he would do for now.

She hadn't used a glass to catch him like Mother did; instead she'd tempted him out of the safety of the shade and the small spaces and then closed her hands around him, cupping them into a cage and staring gleefully at him through the bars her fingers had created.

He was gorgeous. Now that she saw him closer she realised that. His eyes were like glowing coals in a dying fire, the red stripes across his back like war paint on his hard, ebony casing. His clicking fangs seemed to echo in the silence of upstairs and for a while she'd just sat and listened to him, as if he was revealing some ancient story or riddle to her.

Then she'd got up, bare feet cold on the marble floor and closed her fingers around him once more with not with a worry in the world about the venom she knew he possessed. She took him all the way downstairs, tickling her palms with his eight long, furry legs. Once, she nearly dropped him, tripping over the last step in her eagerness to get to the living room, the grin plastered across her face growing with every step.

The living room was a wide room, with french doors at one end and a view of the pretty, well kept garden beyond. The door was half closed when she reached it, and standing still for a second she listened to the voices that floated from within.

"Do you want me to tell you another story Siri?" A tired but contented voice asked – her sister Andromeda, she recognised with a smile.

"Uh-huh!" Another child answered, and she could imagine him nodding, his already thick black hair falling over his deep grey eyes. Sirius.

"Alright," She heard Andromeda reply "A long time ago…"

But her sister never finished because it was at that moment that she decided to push open the heavy wooden door with her shoulder and appear in all her twelve year old splendour in the doorway.

All eyes in the room turned to her, eerily in sink as she stood there grinning at them all. Narcissa, the only other voice she hadn't heard was half way through combing the flowing blonde hair of one of her dolls, the slightly glazed over look in the toy's eyes matching her own exactly.

"What is it Bella?" Andromeda asked her sister quietly, eyeing her cupped hands warily.

_And so she should_ Bella thought happily. "A surprise." She replied coyly, feeling the creature trapped in her closed hands getting more agitated as it desperately searched for a way out of its fleshy prison.

Andromeda looked suspicious, moving slightly so she was sitting infront of her three year old cousin, who was staring at Bella with rapt interest.

But Narcissa was caught up instantly "Ooh!" She gasped "Can I see Bella? Can I?" She asked excitedly, the doll forgotten, lying on the floor in a tangle of bows and neatly folded clothes.

Bella grinned "Of course Cissy." She smiled, closing the door behind her as she did a quick scan of the room. All the doors were shut and her parents were in the drawing room upstairs, pouring over meaningless rolls of parchment with her Aunt and Uncle. They wouldn't be down for hours.

With this thought in mind, Bella sank gracefully to her knees, her pitch-black skirt flowing out around her as she laid her hands, still tight around their prisoner on the soft crème carpet.

The silence was so tangible she felt she could almost taste it, and it made her smile. She could feel the arachnid's frustration as she bottled it inside her closed palms, could hear the tiny sound of its clicking pincers as it vibrated through her skin. She sat like that for a couple of seconds, well aware of how suspicious Andromeda was of her, before she let hell lose.

Her fingers sprang backwards, leaving the creature almost paralyzed on the carpet as for a second the silence played over. And then he moved.

Narcissa screamed as her sister's pet scuttled, lighting fast across the floor towards her. Scrambling to her feet she sent a china vase smashing to the ground in a wave of frightened shrieks and flying splinters of earthenware before she managed to haul herself up onto the second shelf of the huge oaken bookcase, which was beginning to sway dangerously.

The creature had perched itself in the first patch of cover he could find, which happened to be the jumble of toys that had, seconds previously, lain at Narcissa's feet. He was hunched, his dozens of ebony eyes flashing desperately around the room, across the ivory face of Narcissa's doll. His heavy sac of silken thread dropped low over the toy's eyes, still with the same glazed and unfocused expression they'd worn before.

Bella watched him for a second, before her own eyes darted around the rest of the room. Andromeda, who had a bitter hatred of arachnids no matter how large or small, had been rooted to the spot until then but finally piecing her head together, she'd swept Sirius up and on to a table and then turned to face the creature. But it was Sirius who Bella's eyes lingered on for a while as her sister's eyes scanned the room for anything to recapture the escapee.

The three year old was watching Bella's pet with rapt interest, his deep grey eyes not leaving it once. His mouth was partly open, his head was tipped to one side and his left hand was stretched forward on the stained surface as if he was trying to reach the creature.

But Bella was sprung from her thoughts when the sound of footsteps clattering down the wooden stairs danced through the door and into the room. For a second, everything froze, both older sisters' eyes rushing towards the door and the hallway beyond.

Then several things happened at once. With a ear piercing shriek, Narcissa tumbled and flew forward off the bookcase, which with a crash that was easily louder than even the eight year old's cries, came hurtling down to the floor. Books and twisted, splintered shards of wood shot everywhere in a scatter of yellowed pages and battered antique bookends that had everyone throwing themselves to the floor for shelter; Andromeda grabbing Sirius on the way down.

At that same moment, the door flew open and Cygnus Black burst in, his normally pale and composed face livid with anger that seemed to grow and swell into unrivalled fury as he took in the scene before him.

Bellatrix was lying on her side on the carpet, her dark head buried in her arms, her youngest sister curled up not too far away from her. Across the room Andromeda was crouched under the coffee table, Sirius huddled next to her. A sea of wreckage and broken china lay between them and the other occupants of the room.

For a minute at least there was silence, until, pressed up against his cousin, Sirius began to cry. What started as muffled sniffles quickly amplified into wails and cascading tears but still no one moved. All other eyes in the room where on their father.

Finally, after Sirius' wails had reached the point where they were dying back down to sniffs and hiccupping sobs, Cygnus spoke.

"Which of you is responsible for this mess?" He asked softly, but if anything it multiplied the daughter's fear. Anger before a storm was normally better than calm.

No one spoke but sensing her father's growing frustration Andromeda began very

slowly.

"It was my fault Papa."

Bellatrix's eyes met fleetingly with her sister's, but Andromeda acted as if she hadn't seen the desperate plea that flashed through the older girl's eyes.

Cygnus turned to Andromeda, still cuddling Sirius who was peeping out from under her arm. "Explain." He demanded coolly.

"I wanted to tell Sirius a story," She replied, her voice wavering "And I went to the bookcase to get another book out, but I wasn't careful enough…and I pulled too hard…"

Andromeda trailed off "It hit the Mama's vase on the way down and Cissy only just managed to jump out of the way in time." She hung her head in shame "I'm sorry Papa."

Cygnus' eyes went hard as he strode across the mess that had been part of his prized library and picked up his daughter from under the table, bringing her across the other side and leaving Sirius on his own.

"Go to your mother," He told her sternly "And tell her and your Aunt and Uncle what you just told me."

Andromeda nodded, her face losing all of its colour as she ran from the room, but before she had time to get out into the hall, another voice broke the silence.

"Meda?" Sirius' asked, quiet but growing louder as she paused in the doorway. "Where'd the spider go?"

Time seemed to freeze for a minute, Andromeda's heart racing in her chest as she looked towards Bellatrix. Her older sister had a look of complete and utter horror etched on her face as her eyes turned to her baby cousin, who was staring at them all with innocent curiosity.

"Where'd it go?" He asked again, thinking that perhaps they hadn't heard him.

Cygnus looked at the little boy for a moment and then turned to his daughters "Well then," He shrugged "Answer your cousin, where did the spider go?"

Silence descended once again but this time Andromeda didn't dare break it.

Then, without thinking, Narcissa's eyes landed accusingly on Bellatrix.

"Bella brought it to scare me!" She wailed, pointing at her older sister angrily "She said she had a surprise!"

The mingled shock and terror on Bellatrix's face seemed to grow as Narcissa spoke and pleadingly she looked up at her father.

"I didn't mean anything Papa!" She protested "I only wanted to…"

Cygnus cut her off "Show it off to your sisters who are terrified of spiders?" He finished cynically "I'm sure Bella."

Bellatrix hung her head, but not before shooting a venomous glare in her youngest sister's direction. "I'm sorry Papa."

Cygnus shook his head "Sorry isn't good enough." He told her sharply "Both of you go upstairs and tell them what you've done." He rounded on Andromeda "You for lying to me."

Both girls fled the room faster than frightened rabbits, leaving their father to stride across the floor and pick Sirius up, confusion etched across his young face.

"But where is the spider?" He asked uncertainly.

His Uncle stepped into the tangle of wood and bent down picked out a book, noticing a single black, slender leg protuding from under the leather cover.

The spider lay on across the cracked and fractured face of the doll, squashed flat to the porcelain and its dark eyes were as glazed as the glass pair it covered.


End file.
